By maintaining an accommodative monetary policy stance to allow the economy to fully recover from the pandemic, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is unfazed by the more transmissible Omicron variant that is spreading wildly across the world.
WHILE leaders of advanced economies are scrounging for solutions to control the rampaging coronavirus, with newer threats from the Omicron variant, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said it is unfazed by the emergence of this new threat.
This, as it aims to maintain an accommodative monetary policy stance that will allow the economy to fully recover from the pandemic.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said in his weekly online press conference that the central bank would extend its accommodative monetary policy stance until needed by the national government.
“We are not so concerned about the new variant. I think there is too much exaggeration on that. I think the best thing to do for the Philippines is to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, and we have sufficient vaccines available,” Diokno said.
The central bank has kept the benchmark interest rate at an all-time low of two percent since November last year to encourage banks to lend more and boost economic activity.
With the easing of mobility curbs, the economy has started to gradually recover, allowing the country to exit the pandemic-induced recession with a back-to-back gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 12 percent in the second quarter and 7.1 percent in the third quarter, from a contraction of 3.9 percent in the first quarter.
Economic managers through the Development Budget Coordination Committee penned a GDP growth target of between four and five percent this year from a record contraction of 9.6 percent last year when the country slipped into recession.
They expect a faster GDP expansion of seven to nine percent in 2022 and 2023 as the country returns to pre-pandemic levels of output.
Tags: #BSP, #monetarypolicy, #Omicronvariant, #economy